VideoStudio 11+ Preview.

[sjj1805]

Many users will be asking the question "What's New" so here is a quick look.

Before we start please note the system requirements:

System Requirements

For general and Proxy HDV Editing
¡P Intel® Pentium® 4 or higher
¡P Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 Home Edition/Professional, Windows® XP Media Center Edition, Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows® Vista
¡P 512 MB of RAM or higher (1 GB of RAM may be recommended depending on the video capture device used)
¡P 1 GB of available hard disk space for program installation
¡P Windows-compatible sound card (multi-channel sound card for surround sound support recommended)
¡P Windows-compatible CD-ROM for installation

Non-Proxy HDV editing
¡P Intel® Pentium® 4 3.0 GHz or higher with Hyper-Threading technology
¡P Microsoft® Windows® XP (Service Pack2 for HDV camcorder support recommended)
¡P 1 GB of RAM (2GB or more recommended)
¡P 16X PCI ExpressTM display adapter

Input/Output Device Support
¡P 1394 FireWire cards for use with DV/D8/HDV*/AVCHD* camcorders
¡P Support for OHCI Compliant IEEE-1394 and 1394 Adaptec 8940/ 8945
¡P Analog capture cards for analog camcorders (VFW & WDM support for XP and BDA support for Vista)
¡P Analog and Digital TV capture device (BDA support)
¡P USB capture devices, PC cameras, and DVD/hard drive camcorders
¡P Windows® compatible HD DVD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-RAM or CD-R/RW drive
¡P Apple iPod with video*, Sony PSP*, WMV Pocket PC, WMV Smartphone, Nokia Mobile phone, Microsoft Zune

* Plus version
In the DV-to-DVD Wizard, if you plan to capture and burn an hour of DV tape, it is recommended that you have at least 20GB of available hard drive space.

First thing you notice is the new boot screen



The usual options for
VideoStudio editor
Move wizard
DV-DVD wizard are there
Plus the 16.9 format box.

The user interface appears very similar to VS10+ with options to select from 4 available layouts.











The same Easy 7 Steps appear across the top of the screen



One major improvement to the display is the overlay tracks
The normal view is the one we have now grown used to with VideoStudio 10+



But now a button has been added to the interface that enables you to see all of the overlay tracks at once



New to Version 11 is the ability to cut clips on overlay tracks


The Library Manager retains its familiar look


Popular questions with the release of a new product is
"What samples, filters and so on do I get"

Here is a quick look through the library manager.











Note the new "My Favourites Folder"



When you right click a transition you have an option to add that transition to your "My Favourites" folder.



Auto Insert Transitions



A favourite question amongst forum members relates to the number of album transitions.













Smartsound "New Standard" Library:


When I selected the Capture Tab it instantly recognised my Hauppauge PVR 350 PCI TV Card. I did not have to set up the channels it appears to have set it up by itself. I could not get the Hauppauge card to work with VS10+ though it did with VS9 so it seems whatever went wrong in 10+ has been rectified.



The following options are on the capture tab


The following options are on the share tab


The following templates have been set up on the Create Video File Button.













When creating a sound file the following formats are available:






You also get an Extra content pack:

[sjj1805]

Create Disc Screen Shots.























Custom frames = 11 + no frame.
Custom Button sets = 10
Custom Layouts = 11





More Movie Wizard theme Templates.
Video:


Slideshow:


Hopefully this will answer a lot of questions from users who wish to know what is in the new version before deciding to upgrade from their current version.

[sjj1805]

Optimizing MPEG videos

VideoStudio's MPEG Optimizer makes creating and rendering movies in MPEG format a lot faster.

It analyses and finds the best MPEG settings or the Optimal project settings profile to use for your project. In doing so, it saves time by keeping your project's original segments with settings compatible to the Optimal project settings profile and maintains high quality for all segments including the ones that need re-encoding or re-rendering.

After selecting MPEG Optimizer in the Share Step Options Panel, VideoStudio displays the MPEG Optimizer dialog box and shows what percentage of your project needs to be re-rendered.

The MPEG Optimizer automatically detects changes in your project and renders out only the edited portions, making render time much shorter and faster.

[Ron P.]

I've located another feature that has been requested in earlier versions, and now implemented. The ability to add your own Mask Frames. When you select the Mask Frames option you now will see a + and - along the right edge. Clicking on the + allows you to browse your system for your mask frames, that you have created using PI or any other image editing application.



In order to be used as a mask, your image needs to be an 8bit Bitmap, which is a greyscale bitmap. If it is not, you will get a warning box, that will also ask if you want VS to convert it. Press yes and it is coverted to be used in your project.


Another new feature, I guess if you could call it that. It seems they hid this in plain view, staring us right in the face, making it extremely hard to locate.

Now I still am at a loss as to why this was needed. Is our PCs just became too fast that rendering is going way to quickly, so we need to take a pause during the rendering?

Yes a Pause button located on the Progress bar....







CHAPTER and CUE POINTS

With VS10+ they provided the ability to add Chapter Points in your Project. These were carried over into the Burn Module, so that it was faster when building menus to have your Chapters already marked. Now in VS11+ they added CUE POINTS.

Cue Points differ from Chapter Points, in that when creating your masterpieces, you may need to mark places for beats to music, where to place overlays, insert transitions etc. The Cue Points was previous only available in MSP.

Here's some screenshots showing both Chapter and Cue Points..



Clicking on the small arrows located to the left of the Timeline, but to the right of the + and -, will allow you to select either the Chapter or Cue Point bar.



The Chapter Points will be reflected in orange.



The Cue Points will be reflected in a Dark Blue

[Black Lab]

For those of you that requested it, I see that you can now apply a certain transition, or random transitions, to all clips in an entire project.

[Ken Berry]

Including in the overlay tracks?

[Black Lab]

I don't think transitions are available for the overlay tracks again. (They need to save something for v12)

[blplhp]

Hi Jeff,

Have you bought VS11+ yet? If not, do you plan on buying it?

In my cursory review of the "What's New" web page, I don't see much that excites me for what I do with VS10+.

Jeff, since you've seen my work and you know what level of editing I do, do you see a reason for me to get this new version?

Thanks for your input.

[Ken Berry]

I might interject here and say I bought and downloaded the program (VS11+) last night. I did so for one main reason: it is compatible with Vista and I have a new computer which has Vista Home Premium on it. That is the fundamental reason, though as Steve's preview above indicates, it does some things better than VS10 managed to, and has one or two new bells and whistles.

But if you don't have Vista and are unlikely to be worrying for the moment about using the H.264 codec or AVCHD video, then you might not notice too much difference with VS10+.

The one negative thing I have noticed so far, and I admit it is minor, is the fact that it seems to have reverted to the slow start-up of versions before VS10. On my relatively fast Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz machine, it takes 1 minute 25 seconds (I used a stop watch twice) before the program has fully opened and is ready for use.

Indeed, the first time I fired it up after installation, it took 45 seconds before anything happened at all. I imagine that would be rather disconcerting for many, particularly newbies...

A further downside for me with Vista, though relating directly to my use of VS, is that Cool 3D (I have Cool 3D Production Studio) is not compatible with Vista and may in fact be phased out. I have used Cool 3D enormously over the past five years (since VS7) and as its name implies, I have made many a cool title for my videos edited in VS. I would consider it a great shame and loss if it were to be phased out by Corel.

In the mean time, I guess a clunky work-around would be for me to use Cool 3D where it is currently installed on one of my PCs running XP Pro. I would then produce an .avi of the Cool title on that computer, then import it into VS11+ on this computer for use in new projects.

[blplhp]

Thanks, Ken for your response.

Since I don't have Vista, nor an HD camcorder, and since VS11+ doesn't implement many of our "wishlist" items that we compiled over the past 9 months, I will likely pass on VS11+. My VS10+ is still working perfectly and does what I need it to do. Also, as you and others may know, I have been able to figure out many workarounds for its minor shortcomings. And the senior members (I mean that by experience, not age ) of this Forum have also advised of many workarounds as well. Maybe VS12+ next year will have more of our wishlist upgrades included.

Thanks again, Ken. Great talking to you again, I know its been awile.

[Black Lab]

Hi Bryan,

I agree with Ken, unless you are running Vista, there probably isn't a great need to upgrade. Although, last night I was working on some clips in the overlay track and needed to edit one. Oops, couldn't do it there. Had to move it to the main track. What a pain in the a**.

So maybe I will upgrade if I continue to use the overlay tracks more and more (but it really gets me that they didn't include the ability to use transitions in the overlays ).

[sjj1805]

...........
So maybe I will upgrade if I continue to use the overlay tracks more and more (but it really gets me that they didn't include the ability to use transitions in the overlays ).

I have added this suggestion to
Wish List

[blplhp]

Thanks, Jeff.

I agree that if Ulead (or Corel) had provided more editing functions in the overlay track, like transitions and a few other editing functions (besides cutting), then I would probably upgrade. But they didn't and that's a real shame, considering that many of their competitors' editing programs provide for these things.

Thanks Jeff and good talking to you as well. It has been a while since I have posted many responses to this Forum. I have been busy learning dslr photography, as my son's K-12 school has asked me to be their sports photographer. So far I have shot 4 varsity baseball games with great results. Now they want me to shoot their varsity football, soccer and basketball games next fall. Now if I can only get them to see a need for video. They mainly want pictures for their yearbook. The other reason for my lack of responses here has been due to the fact that I mainly try to help people when they have questions about how to use the software to accomplish their editing needs. I'm not experienced enough to answer people's technical problems when the software doesn't work right or they have capturing or burning issues, especially with the different video formats. You guys do a great job in that area. And it seems that there has been more of the "technical problem" type of posts rather than the "how to figure out how to do something" type of posts, which is understandable. The longer a program has been out and the more threads that have already been established addressing these issues, the fewer people that write threads concerning those issues.

I still continue to surf the Forum weekly and try to offer comments when needed.

You guys keep up the great work and talk to you soon.

[Black Lab]

Great news about the sports photog. You know what the say about getting a foot in the door. Good luck.

[LSHorwitz]

No mention has been made so far of the new filters for removing noise and deblocking. The filters are suppose to fix some common problems with poorer quality video. I think the DeSnow filter is also new.